From 1970 to 1974 he served a
motorized rifle platoon and company commander in a tank division of the
28th Army, in the
Belorussian Military District, before becoming a staff officer in the operations department of that army's staff. After serving in Belarus, Baluyevsky was assigned to the
Leningrad Military District in the same capacity, first as an operations officer on the
6th Army staff before being the senior officer in the operations directorate of the military district staff. Baluyevsky served at the
Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff from 1982 to 1993. Around the time of the
dissolution of the Soviet Union he was as an assistant to the deputy minister of defense, Colonel General
Vladislav Achalov, , 2002 He was serving in that position when the
Kosovo War started in early 1999 and Russia was going to be excluded by the
NATO countries from taking part in the peacekeeping mission there. In May 1999 Baluyevsky ordered the Russian
Airborne brigade of the
Stabilization Force in
Bosnia and Herzegovina to secretly prepare to enter
Kosovo. This eventually led to the
incident at Pristina airport between Russian and NATO troops in June 1999. In 2000, President
Vladimir Putin tasked him with leading military negotiations that involved NATO countries and
China. At a press conference in early 2002 Baluyevsky claimed that
Iran has nuclear weapons. He said that "Iran does have nuclear weapons. These are non-strategic nuclear weapons. ... As for the danger of Iran's attack on the United States, the danger is zero." Before and during the
invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition in early 2003, Baluyevsky said that Russia would not become militarily involved in the conflict. On 27 May 2002 he attended a ceremony for the opening of the NATO Military Liaison Mission in Moscow with the
Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral
Guido Venturoni. In December 2002 Baluyevsky said that it was in Russia's national interests to have closer relations with the U.S. and NATO, In 2003 he was involved in negotiations between Russia and Georgia.
Chief of the General Staff , 2007 and his successor as the Chief, Army General
Nikolai Makarov, 2008 Baluyevsky was appointed
Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation on 20 July 2004, But he was also the first Chief of the General Staff that did not previously command a military district and did not have much combat experience. He supported some changes to the structure of the
Russian Ground Forces, basing it on brigades instead of divisions and having the majority of its troops be enlisted soldiers instead of conscripts, though he was against ending conscription entirely. However his time as the Chief of the General Staff did not lead to a significant improvement in the military's combat effectiveness. In 2005 he said that the existing Ground Forces structure of army, division, regiment, and battalion was outdated, designed to fight a World War II-style conflict. He said that brigades and divisions should be the main tactical units, and as of that year some "mountain rifle" brigades were being formed in the
North Caucasus. Baluyevsky believed that brigades were the right units to have in the
Leningrad Military District and divisions were right for the
Moscow Military District, based on the geography and terrain of those regions. In a 2005 interview, Baluyevsky said he believed that Russia and the NATO countries both have an interest in cooperating to fight terrorism, though they could have disagreement in other areas, because "every state has its own interests." In June 2005 Baluyevsky was made the Chief of the Joint Staff of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization and held that position until June 2006. In December 2005 Baluyevsky visited
Cuba and met with Defense Minister
Raul Castro, making him the highest ranking Russian official to visit Cuba since 1998. When the U.S. announced plans to set up a
missile shield in Europe in early 2007, Baluyevsky stated that Russia could withdraw from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. On 19 January 2008, Baluyevsky warned that Russia was ready to use force, including pre-emptively and with
nuclear weapons, to defend itself against the potential threats from "
international terrorism or countries seeking global or regional hegemony." He was considered to become Russia's Minister of Defense in 2007 but was not selected. When
Anatoly Serdyukov was given that post and tried to implement radical military reforms, Baluyevsky opposed his efforts, His disagreement and open criticism of Serdyukov led to him being replaced on 3 June 2008 with General
Nikolai Makarov, who was a supporter of the reforms, in a decision by recently elected president
Dmitry Medvedev. ==Civilian career==